


You shall live to see these days renewed

by estelendur



Category: Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Genre: Eowyn is a warrior damnit, F/M, Fix-it fic, Gen, by the broadest possible definition
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-08
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-09 10:50:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estelendur/pseuds/estelendur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aragorn: You have some skill with a blade.<br/>Eowyn: The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain.<br/>Aragorn: What do you fear, my lady?<br/>Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.<br/>Aragorn: You are a daughter of kings, a shield maiden of Rohan. I do not think that will be your fate.</p><p>"Look not to me for healing! I am a shieldmaiden and my hand is ungentle." ~ Éowyn</p><p>"The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny." ~ Faramir</p><p>"Éowyn, do you not love me?"<br/>Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. ....<br/>"I will be a shieldmaiden no longer .... I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Faramir was so hopeful, so kind, when her world was shattered and she knew not where she could turn. In the Houses of Healing, she leaned on him as on a crutch, until she could stand on her own two feet, however shakily, and know that she stood on solid ground. He continued to be kind, continued to support her, beyond what she could ask for and eventually beyond what she wanted.

When she decided, at last, that his endless kindness had become nothing more than smothering, she took him aside and told him so, but his answer surprised her. 

“I have been waiting for you to say that,” he said. “Aragorn had told me that you feared nothing more than a cage. When we were still in the Houses of Healing, he came to me and told me this; he wanted nothing more than for you to be happy, and for me to be happy. It gladdened his heart that we had found solace in each other, he said, but he warned me that you might soon grow discontent.”

“He did?” Eowyn asked, a little surprised — ungraciously so — that the King had thought highly enough of her to look out for her in that way, during those dark, bright, busy days after the fall of Barad-Dur. “He spoke truth. I am a shieldmaiden of Rohan — he told me so himself — and I have faced peril as great as any man can claim.” She raised her chin proudly, defiantly, daring Faramir to contradict her.

“Indeed you have. There is no more great adventure in our part of this world, but there are yet small adventures, and we may seek them out together, if you wish. I would not bind you so tight that you chafe at my love; I would rather have you two months of the year than have you not at all.” He took up her hand and kissed the back of it, almost shy, almost reverent.

“I did not expect this of you,” she said. “I never met your brother or your father, but what little I heard of them painted a picture of arrogant men, who thought they knew the place of everyone in the world; I had assumed that because you found me meek and broken, you would think that it was my natural state.”

“My lady, I am not like my father or brother were, and even when you were broken and cold, I never thought that was how you would stay; I never thought that tending the sick was where you belonged. Any man who thinks you meek is so imperceptive as to be hardly worth your attention.” Faramir grinned wryly, and Eowyn decided that it was necessary, then, to kiss him, fierce and hot.


	2. I Am No Diplomat

"Lord Faramir, Prince of Ithilien. Lady Éowyn of the Shield-Arm. Welcome."

"We answer your summons gladly, my lord," said Éowyn, curtsying as Faramir bowed. "What would you have us do?"

Aragorn stood and descended the steps to his throne, to stand with them. "I ask not as a king, but as a friend: please, go to the Easterlings and discover how we may have peace. They have marched against us three times already, and although we have driven them back each time, their chief will not speak to me."

"Do you know why?" asked Éowyn. "He is alone in his unwillingness. Even Saruman's abominations treated with you."

"I know not, but he refuses my presence. Even on the battlefield he seemed always to have an army between us, though he was glad enough to engage my captains."

"If he will not treat with you, would he accept an envoy?" Faramir asked.

Aragorn sighed. "I do not know. But it is worth the attempt, and I know that you, Lady, have been eager for adventure."

"While I," Faramir said wryly, "would prefer to stay in the quiet hills of Ithilien and take only what adventure attacks us there."

"I do not deny," said Éowyn, "that I have been wondering what the country of our strange foes is like. Faramir, will you go with me?"

"I will."

"I thank you both," said Aragorn. "As King Elessar, then, I give you this writ guaranteeing you food and lodging while you remain in lands I rule, and supplies to take when you enter the unknown wilds of Rhûn. I also give you your choice of my stables, saving only Brego. As I said, he has seen enough of war, and even our lands are not yet entirely peaceful. Go when you will, and godspeed."

Thus dismissed, they took the writ, made their courtesies, and left.

**Author's Note:**

> probably to be continued


End file.
